Arsenal scouts sent to watch Lille teen

ARSENAL are keeping a close eye on exciting Lille forward Sehrou Guirassy, according to reports.

The 20-year-old has greatly impressed on loan at Auxerre, where he has scored eight goals in 15 appearances for the Ligue 2 outfit in the second half of the season.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger could – or more to the point, should – be in the market for a new forward this summer with Olivier Giroud struggling to find form and Danny Welbeck battling with injury.

According to Metro: “Arsenal have begun scouting Guirassy by sending Steve Rowley, one of their top scouts, to France for a match between Auxerre and Le Havre after Wenger was alerted to the 20-year-old forward’s production.”

It’s been somewhat of a rapid rise for Guirassy, who can play on either wing or as a central striker.

He only joined Lille last summer after coming to the fore for Laval when he broke into the side at the age of 18 and established himself as a regular.

But Guirassy, who is of Ivorian descent, has taken big steps since then and has been capped three times for the French Under-20 team, after scoring six goals in 11 appearances for Les Bleus Under-19’s.

But is he the answer for Arsenal?

As with so many of Wenger’s ‘potential targets’, he fits the Frenchman’s prototype of being young, skilful and ‘mouldable’ but he’s certainly not the big name Gunners fans are demanding and it would be asking a lot to expect Guirassy to become a regular first team contributor in his first season or two in the Premier League.